


I believe in fires at midnight

by Heavy Henry (HeavyHenry)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Christmas Lights, F/F, Holidays, Winter Solstice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:20:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28073841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavyHenry/pseuds/Heavy%20Henry
Summary: Sara, Mila, trains, and lights.
Relationships: Mila Babicheva/Sara Crispino
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Holidays!!! on Ice (2020)





	I believe in fires at midnight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Val_Creative](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/gifts).



Sara said that the Solstice was important. Mila couldn’t honestly say that she had given it much thought.

Sara liked that sort of thing: signs, significant days, the little every day rituals that made life more magical. She was forever plucking eyelashes from Mila’s cheeks and asking her to make wishes, or collecting lucky objects. The first time they met, Sara had given her a lucky fava bean from a Saint Joseph’s altar. Mila still had it, tucked safely in her wallet, even though that wasn’t usually her sort of thing. 

Tonight, though, Mila was a little bit tired. She had gotten off a plane just a few hours ago. A few hours before that, she had been at her mother’s house in Chicago, not quite a Christmas visit, but the closest they could manage between Mila’s holiday schedule at the bakery and her mother’s schedule at the hospital. Chicago to New Orleans was an easy flight. It was the four days with her mother that had done her in. 

Sara was tired, too. Mila could hear it in her voice and, unlike Mila, she had another couple of hours at work: no shower and map for her. 

Mila passed the bag of takeout over the checkout desk. “Long day?” 

“Ugh, you have no idea. I don’t know why I decided I had to do a PJ Storytime tonight,” she moaned as she peeked into the bag. 

“Because you do it every year and you keep telling me that it’s your favorite?” 

“Stop owning me with facts and logic, Mila. I have a mountain of chenille stems to snip. My knuckles are sore.” 

“What the fuck are chenille stems?” 

Sara snorted, wrinkling her cute nose. “It’s what they call pipe-cleaners now.” 

“Huh. I didn’t expect to have a fit of generational angst over pipe-cleaners today but here we are. I got you that cauliflower salad you like.” 

“You’re an angel.” Sara sighed and looked toward the workroom. “I’m sorry, chenille stems wait for no woman…” 

“No problem. I’ll pick you up at eight?” 

Sara nodded and leaned across the counter for the only sort of kiss you could get away with giving your significant other on their dinner break: quick, chaste, close-mouthed. Mila had just finished her own bowl of garlicky lentil curry, so it was probably for the best. 

Mila had almost dozed off in the parking lot when the staff door of the library finally swung open, the evening crew swarming out into the parking lot as Sara held the door for them all. Her profile caught the warm golden light from inside, making her briefly glow like a renaissance painting before she let the door close and joined the rest of the world in the cool blue light of the evening. 

“How did it go?” Mila asked as Sara tossed her bag into the back seat. 

“ _So_ nice,” Sara grinned, “I love doing that storytime. We got glitter _everywhere_.” 

Mila smirked as she pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the park. Sara had insisted on showing Mila the Christmas lights in City Park as soon as she’d made the mistake of asking about them. Apparently, this had been a popular Crispino family outing when Sara and Michel were kids, and Sara had even made Mila listen to a recording of her middle school choir singing the wassail song from a battered CD labelled ‘Holiday in the Oaks 2008: A Christmas Medley.’ 

Mila had to admit that it felt magica, letting Sara lead her along a path lined with fir trees sporting ornaments that had clearly been decorated by children. She stopped to look closer at a herd of salt dough animals; dinosaurs or reindeer? It was almost impossible to say. At the bottom of each tree a laminated placard listed the school names. Beyond that, the park became a sparkling forest. Brightness hung from the ancient oaks: branches already festooned with Spanish moss acquired an illuminated drapery of lights. Some were animated, trickles of light that dripped from above like melting ice. 

“First thing’s first!” Sara said, tugging at Mila’s hand. “We can walk as long as we want, but the train doesn’t run all night, and I _need_ some hot cocoa first.” 

This seemed like an excellent plan to Mila. It had been warm during the day, but now that the sun had set, a cooler breeze was starting to pick up. It had blown away the last of the clouds and even with the lights of the city, she could pick out Orion’s belt. Hot chocolate sounded perfect. It took a moment for the rest of the sentence to catch up to her. Mila had seen the small tracks running through the park, and even though she loved them, it never occurred to her that this meant there was also a tiny train. 

Armed with paper cups of hot cocoa, they made their way to a little blue and white train station just as the train pulled up. They climbed into the last row, close on the narrow wooden seat. With a little lurch the train set off, blowing its whistle. MIla shifted her drink to her left hand so that she could wrap her right arm around Sara’s shoulders. Sara scooched as close as she could. 

“It’s a little corny, right?” 

“Christmas is corny,” Mila said. “It’s part of the charm.” She looked around at the ancient trees with their gnarled branches outlined in ropes of rainbow light and lagoons filled with glowing flamingoes and she looked over at Sara and the way the colored lights played over her face and reflected in her wide eyes and couldn’t find fault with any of it. “Apparently, I like corny.” 

Sara tilted her face up then, her lips warm and sweet from the cocoa, but the tip of her nose was cold. She still looked a little worried when Mila pulled back to marvel at the luminous pirate ship that floated in the next lagoon. “You’re sure? You don’t mind me dragging you through all my childhood memories?” 

“No, I love that you want to share them with me.” 

Sara sighed and snuggled closer. “Good. I don’t ever want to stop.” 

“Maybe next year, you can come home with me and I’ll drag you to all of my places: skating at Navy Pier, sledding, my mom would make us borscht…” 

“Do you think it’ll snow?” 

“For you, I’m sure it will.” 

“I’ll need a coat.” 

“It can be your Christmas present.” 

Sara turned her face toward Mila’s shoulder, rubbing her nose against her sweater. “Do you know why I like this night so much?” 

Mila turned toward her and let the smell of Sara’s almond shampoo fill her lungs. “Not really.” 

“It’s weird, I guess. I like the night. I’ve always loved the stars and things like that. I used to want to be an astronaut, you know.” 

Mila nods. 

“So I think it’s cool that this is the longest, the most night time of all the nights.” 

“It’s Nighty McNightface.” 

“Goofball. So, I like it because it’s the _most_ night, like how much more night could it be? None.” 

Mila snorted and got a hair up her nose. 

When she was done sneezing, Sara went on. “Bless you. But, even though I like the night, I don’t want it to go on forever. So every day after this, the light starts to come back.” Sara looked at her hands for a moment. “It’s a good reminder, you know? When you’ve had a rough year or whatever, it’s good to remember that the light always comes back.” 

Mila thought about that the next morning as she watched the light stream through Sara’s curtains and she decided that the Solstice was important to her, too. 

**Author's Note:**

> The light display is based on the Celebration in the Oaks display in New Orleans. You can watch a video of the train ride here: https://youtu.be/ytauc2LYjXs
> 
> Title from the song Fires at Midnight from the best Jethro Tull album, Songs from the Wood.


End file.
